At Christmas I told my grandad that instead of buying him the usual ginger cookies and a bottle or red I’d instead like to take him out for a nice dinner. He came back promptly saying he’d much prefer it if I cooked him a meal as a present as it would be more special. So this week I had my grandad, his wife and my sister around to join me and my husband for a dinner party!
I had excitedly started planning elaborate menus then I realised that this might become stressful for me as I work full time and they are coming on a week night! So I made my Roasted Vegetable Lasagne (with a few extra veggies thrown in that I had in the fridge). I served this with a big salad, some different garlic breads and a nice bottle of red wine. This seemed to me to be the best solution to a stress free veggie dinner party as The lasagne was made at the weekend and put in the freezer and I had bought breads and a pudding (sorry to all the keen bakers!).
The main thing I had been doing in the run up is cleaning my house. The dining room is full of boxes of wedding decorations which I haven’t decided what to do with yet so we set up a dining table in our kitchen and I bought new place mats to match the turqouise walls so it actually looks really pretty. I also got some new salt and pepper shakers at christmas which look great and I have some lovely Salad bowls which I used! My husband probably thinks I am mad because I had the table all set up a couple of days in advance butI was just over excited 
It made me think about future dinner parties, it’s my birthday in February so I think I’d like to do another one, I could cook a starter and even make my own pudding! I think I find it scary because you never want to be judged on something you are passionate about but at the same time I think it’s important to share something you love so much, especially when that thing is food! Last night’s empty dishes and murmers of appreciation left me feeling very confident to invite more people over though.
The best part of having a dinner party is that I had a left over slice of lasagna which I am looking forward to eating at lunchtime!! Got to love left overs
Posted by Jennifer M. on January 20, 2012 at 11:51 am
That is awesome! How cool that your granddad preferred to eat at home rather than going out. Everything looks so good, and I see you still have the same tablecloth
Lol!
Posted by veghotpot on January 20, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I know bless him
we had a really lovely night! HAHA yup I just love this tablecloth but I did Jazz it up with new place mats 
xx
Posted by trueindigo on January 24, 2012 at 3:53 pm
What a great blog entry. From gift idea to presentation, it really warmed my heart.
Posted by veghotpot on January 24, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Thank you
Posted by My Second Vegetarian Dinner Party! « veghotpot on March 14, 2012 at 7:52 am
[...] really enjoyed having family over for dinner in January (see that post here) and being able to cook for everyone felt very good so I thought I’d do it again! I’ve [...]